To Trevor Burgess, who in August as CEO of C1 Bank in St. Petersburg, Florida, became the first openly gay CEO of a publicly listed bank, Cook's statement is nothing less than groundbreaking.

"Today will go down as a real seminal moment in American business history," Burgess told CNBC on Thursday. "As the leader of the most valuable business in the world, he can be a tremendous force for change in really thinking about how young gay and lesbian students, kids can dream an American dream and how they can rise through the ranks and be a leader."

Tim Cook

China Daily | Reuters

A "generational" barrier has left few openly gay executives in business today, Burgess said on "Squawk on the Street. " Older executives who were hesitant to be open about their sexuality will soon retire, likely succeeded by a younger generational of openly gay men and women, he said.

"There are many, many, many openly gay and lesbian executives who are just below the C-suite who now will be entering it and I think this will quickly be a story of the past," Burgess said.

"The reaction was universally positive and I gained more clients from it and fundamentally I think that's because that people care about the quality of the product and service that you deliver to the consumer and Apple is better at that than anybody else."